The Last Instalment to the Cheap Renovation - Kitchen

Only one more room to show you from my sister's cheap house reno. It's the kitchen and clearly before we gave it a facelift it had seen better days. Cork floors, no bench space and old, old old (and smelly!)

Now it's clean, bright and a lovely place to prepare a meal. All without a huge budget and here's how we did that:

The kitchen cupboards are flat pack, DIY Bunnings Hardware kitchen cupboards. The oven is second hand bought off Gumtree, the tiles are the original ones but painted with tile paint (left over from the bathroom) and the bench-top is Tasmanian Oak hardwood studs. Roge laminated them together to make a huge big slab of bench-top.

The floors were polished up along with the bulk of the rest of the house and ta-dah, one kitchen overhaul.

Considering what it looked like before, it may be basic but it's a whole lot better than it was!

Kitchen Cost: $1466 approx excluding the electrician and flooring. Overall this renovation cost $4600 approx. Since then my sister has invested a little more money and a whole lot of elbow grease into doing other little things like gardening, painting exterior windows, blinds etc. It will continue to be a labor of love but the house is no longer an ugly duckling.

So many tips on how to save money but the in my mind the biggest are:

- Do as much work yourself and stick to cosmetic updates if you've never renovated before.
- Try not to move the lay out in kitchens and bathrooms. Less plumbing and electrician costs that way.
- Paint is a cheap reno tool and can transform a room/cupboard/tiles or piece of furniture.
- Prioritise getting rid of dated flooring and light fittings. We kept the old carpet in the bedrooms which was still in good condition but polished the rest of the floors throughout.
- Use second hand materials if you can. I love Gumtree but there are others (Freecycle, Ebay etc)

Bathroom Makeover on the Cheap (but doesn't look cheap!)

This time last year, my sister bought her first house. It was dated but with good bones. With a limited budget, we have given it a good transformation and mainly just with paint.

Pre reno. Love those slime green tiles, especially coupled with the feature poodle tiles!

Post reno. Still the same lay out but now it has a new vanity and towel rails. The tiles have been painted with a special tile paint in a light grey. The walls painted a crisp white. New dark grey laminate has been laid on the floor.

Overall a good result for very little spent. The vanity was new but bought off Gumtree for $150, stone bench-top a off-cut from the local stonemason for $100. Vanity from Bunnings warehouse for $180, the tap was the one they had previously in the kitchen. Flooring for approx $500 (including the toilet next door), paint $120 and towel rails approx $150.

Next week I'll show you pictures of the renovated kitchen. Again, it's amazing what results you can get with not much money spent.

Happy weekend!

Progress Report On My Sister's Renovation - Lounge and Dining Room

A while ago I did a blog showing you my sister's new house. It's a 60's, brick and tile delight but despite the tired interior, it had loads of potential. We started with a budget of $3000 and I'll admit we have chosen to exceed that (we're only over by about $1000) but I still think we've done exceptionally well for that little amount of money.

So far all the rooms are mostly completed bar a bit of painting but the lounge room and dining room are as good as done and this is the result:

In this room we have ripped up the carpet, polished the floor boards, exposed the fireplace which had been covered over and installed a new wood heater which we had pulled out of another house (so it was a freebie - that's always good for the budget!) 

The old venetian blinds have been removed and new sun shade blinds put in. Curtains will be put up in the next few weeks but we're waiting for some brackets that we've ordered to arrive. The old fashioned light fittings have been removed and now only one simple pendant light exists in the middle of the ceiling. The walls were already painted by the previous owners but we have painted all the wooden skirting boards/architraves in a gloss white to further freshen it up.

The carpet mat is a end of roll from the local carpet shop which means we got it extra cheap ($90) and had it bound for an extra $70. It's a huge 3.2m by 3.2m and makes the lounge really cosy. The wall art is simply a piece of Cloth fabric (and Aussie designer) material covering a canvas. Big impact for a  minimal price.

This is a before shot of the corner of the lounge room. In the next photo, you can see that we have removed the old cupboards and lighting.

It really doesn't look like the same room does it!?

Off the lounge room is the dining room which used to be really really pokey as it had an old fire place which dominated it. Again we removed old light fittings and replaced them with a simple drop pendant and a Bunnings Hardware light shade for $22. 

This is a before picture looking at the dining room from the kitchen. You can see the old fireplace, it was really gross eh!

Now it looks completely different. We still have to replace a small bit of plaster cornice at the ceiling but otherwise it's now completed. 

There you have it, by stripping back the carpets, blinds etc as well as getting rid of the old mis-mash of light fittings, the house is feeling a lot more spacious and light. So many beautiful windows, I can't understand why the previous owner would have them covered up with ugly, heavy blinds and curtains.

My sister has cleverly chosen a main colour (red) to brighten the otherwise neutral canvas of the rooms. By using the same colour primarily through all the rooms, it makes the house all "flow" and tie together really nicely.

Once we've finished a bit more painting and final touches, I'll show you what we've done with the kitchen and bathroom. They no longer look like this, I can assure you!